1960’s Czech Graphic Design
⭆ Collecting | A collection of trading cards and children’s books from beyond the Iron Curtain.
Since its founding in 1918, Czechoslovakia has produced a wide range of notable modernist graphic designs, with Karel Teige and Ladislav Sutnar probably being the best-known artists today. However, since the 1920s, there have also been countless designs for beautifully crafted advertising brochures, movie posters, book covers, fabrics, and packaging. This tradition survived after the war, sometimes under economically and politically challenging conditions, bringing a touch of color to an otherwise rather gray everyday life. Here is a small selection of ephemeral and anonymous graphics from the 1960s that are otherwise hard to find. Also included is a selection of wonderfully strange children’s books that – much like the phantastic films of Jan Švankmajer and Karel Zeman – were a part of my childhood.
A collection of trading cards (1959-62)
I found this collection of about 150 Czech trading cards at an East Berlin flea market shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I’m not sure of their exact context – whether they are trading cards or advertising prints that were glued to matchboxes. Nevertheless, I truly adore their graphic quality and the pictograms of desirable objects like refrigerators, TV sets, cars, motor scooters, and private homes – a summary of personal dreams that one might more readily associate with a capitalist country.
Modern Tales and Fables. Illustrations by Vaclav Sivko, German version (1967)
I owned this beautiful yet peculiar book as a child and was thrilled to rediscover it at a flea market some years ago. It’s astonishing how many of the illustrations have lingered in my memory for over 50 years! The German version is titled Märchen-Karussell – Anthologie moderner tschechischer Märchen, which translates to Fairy Tale Carousel – Anthology of Modern Czech Fairy Tales. As far as I know, there were also English, French, and Finnish editions published, but I have never come across the original Czech printing.
Václav Sivko (1923–1974) was a Czech painter, graphic artist, illustrator, and scenographer. From 1942 to 1943, he studied at the National School for Graphic Arts and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Between 1944 and 1945, he served as an assistant in Josef Sudek’s studio. In the post-war years, he worked as an editor for several magazines and later served as art director at the publishing houses Mladá fronta (1956–1965) and Albatros (1967–1968).